This was the Second Studio album release from Bob Dylan. Released on CBS records in 1963, The Freewheelin Bob Dylan swept the world like a storm . This was the First Album release of Dylan’s that consisted solely of his own songs.
The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
Track listing;
1. Blowin in the Wind
2. Girl from the North Country
3. Masters of War
4. Down the Highway
5. Bob Dylan’s Blues
6. It’s a Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall
7. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
8. Bob Dylan’s Dream
9. Oxford Town
10. Talkin World War III Blues
11. Corrina, Corrina (Traditional)
12. Honey Just Allow Me One more Chance
13. I Shall be Free
Bob Dylan & His 2nd Album
Bob Dylan is an American Singer-Songwriter from Hibbing Minnesota who went to New York city and made it famous in the Folk revival scene of the time He released his Self titled debut album ‘Bob Dylan’ in 1962 which consisted mostly of covers of old American folk songs except for his song ‘Song to Woody’ which he wrote for his Hero Woody Guthrie when he visited the songwriter in the hospital as he was dying.
Freewheelin
Due to the lack of sales with his Debut album, Columbia were going to cancel his contract. However, Dylan’s friend John Hammond who’d originally recommended him to the company managed to persuade the bosses to give him another Chance. So they agreed to cut a Second album.
When Dylan released his Second album ‘The Freewheelin Bob Dylan’, it took the world by Storm. His previous debut album self-titled ‘Bob Dylan’ only featured Two of his own songs. However, Eleven of the Thirteen Songs on The Freewheelin Bob Dylan were his own songs that he had wrote himself. So for many, this was his first Original album although I thought his debut album was great too even if most songs were covers. He still pulled them off well.
The Album was released on May the 27th 1963 on Columbia Records. It contained a mixture of Love songs and songs about Travelling and being a Hobo, although he also addressed many of the current issues of the time. One such major issue of the time was the Nuclear Arms Race. With the cold war going on, Fears ran high in The Land of the Free with the threat of annihilation overhanging the world. However, Dylan sang songs about this issue challenging the powers that be whilst calling their bluff.
Big Influences
Dylan always claimed he was Influenced a lot by the great Blues and Folk singers and songwriters of the contemporary and previous generations. Some of these included Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash and of course Woody Guthrie. You can hear the influences of these artists throughout Dylan’s music. Especially his early stuff.
However, another big Influence to his work around this time, and especially this album was his Girlfriend Suze Rotolo. Suze was a big influence to Dylan’s political outlook and his protest songs. Having been raised by parents who were both active members of the American Communist movement, she was far more liberal and politically minded than Bob was. He often acknowledges Suze’s Input to his writing o many of the topics he was writing about.
Taking it to the World
Dylan played a series of Gigs around the time he was recording his Second album. After a few complications with record deals, the singer embarked on his first tour of the United Kingdom in December 1962. Whilst in the UK, he was approached by the BBC and asked to make an appearance on the TV show Madhouse on Castle Street.
Dylans trip to England was also highly influential to his music as he met many of the Traditional Folk singers of the British isles. Many of these influences rubbed of on Dylan. One such Folk singer he met in England was Martin Carthy who Dylan acknowledges he learned a lot from. In fact, it was as a result of playing Carthy’s arrangement of Scarborough Fair that Bob came up with Girl from the North Country which features on this album.
He also done a short Tour of Italy whilst over that way and wrote some of the songs on the album whilst in Italy and England. Dylan returned to New York in January 1963. He was very keen to get recording the new songs he’d written whilst in the UK and Italy. Although he was also keen to see his girlfriend Suze again and the couple soon moved in together in his flat that he had on West Fourth street.
Meanwhile Backstage
However, while Bob was full of energy and keen to get recording the rest of the album, back stage that energy was matched. However, not with the same positivity. Tensions were heightened in the power struggle between Albert Grossman and John Hammond. These Two men were apparently completely different from each other. One Bob Dylan biographer called Howard Sounes recalls “Hammond was a WASP, so relaxed during recording sessions that he sat with feet up, reading The New Yorker. Grossman was a Jewish businessman with a shady past, hustling to become a millionaire”
Dylan and The Censor
On May the 12th, 1963, Dylan agreed with Ed Sullivan that he would make an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He told him that he would be playing his song Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues from his Forthcoming Freewheelin album. However, it appeared that the censor decided that the song would leave the TV Station up for libel and that Dylan would have to choose another song to play. But Dylan was having none of it. Instead of complying and changing his set list, Dylan refused to play unless he got to play his song.
Now, what happened next is not entirely clear and has raised specualation and debate amongst Dylan fans. Some claim that Columbia having been made aware that a song of this nature was about to be broadcast on their label pulled the plug at the last minute and forcing Dylan to drop it from the album and replace it with another.
However, some would speculate that since such a task of re-cutting a record so close to its release date would be a major task, it must have been sanctioned earlier. Could Dylan have cancelled himself and deliberately made a spectacle by refusing to play unless the song was allowed, knowing well that it wouldn’t be? This tactic has often worked to boost record sales, although I don’t think he really needed to. But it would at least add a bit of mystery to the whole thing which Dylan, whether by chance or design, always seems to be shrouded in.
Shakin it up
Either way, the album was re-cut and pressed with it’s original Tracklisting changed. Four of the Original songs were replaced by Four of his newer songs. The Four songs that were dropped were ‘Talkin John Birch Paranoid Blues’, ‘Let me Die in my Footsteps’, ‘Rocks and Gravel’ and ‘Ramblin, Gamblin Willie’. These were replaced by ‘Girl from the North Country’, ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’, ‘Masters of War’ and ‘Talkin World War III Blues’.
There wasn’t many original copies of the album made to begin with and Columbia claim that all copies were destroyed when they cut the revised edition. However, there have been a few original copies turn up over the years. But they are very few. An original copy of The Freewheelin Bob Dylan is today valued at around $35k.
Did You Enjoy that?
Well, I must say, I enjoyed listening to that album again. It’s one of those albums I first heard in my teens and has always been pleasant to hear every now and then. How about you? Did you like that album? Whatever you think of it, we’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on it in the comments below. Here at The Collective Jukebox, we’re all lovers of music and love to read what others have to say about the material we share here.
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